clock … watching time, the only true currency

I knocked off John Le Carré’s The Looking-Glass War a few weeks ago. It’s tale of bumbling and bureaucracy in a relatively minor army intelligence department, trying to recapture its World War II prominence. According to Wikipedia:

John le Carré has stated that this novel is his most realistic portrayal of the intelligence world as he knew it and that this was one reason for its relative lack of success.

That makes altogether too much sense. When turf wars and politics mix with intelligence, well, we’re living with the results. So the process is hardly good escapist fun. Le Carré usually manages to nab my attention and interest all the same…but no amount of human touches make this bleak story compelling. I was glad to put it down.